Jakarta Election Officials Take Down Divisive Political Posters

Ahead of Jakarta’s runoff gubernatorial election, election officials on Friday said they had found 75 offensive political banners around the capital.

Ramdansyah, head of the city’s Elections Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu), said the banners could cause tension because they contained insensitive references to race, religion, ethnicity and societal groups, better known as SARA.

“So far I have only received preliminary reports from four areas: Central, North, East and South Jakarta,” he said. “I haven’t received reports yet from West Jakarta or the Thousand Islands district.”

He said he had ordered Panwaslu to take down the banners but five could not be removed due to difficulties on site.

Fifty-one of the banners were found in North Jakarta, including 32 in Koja subdistrict and 19 in Tanjung Priok subdistrict.

Panwaslu found 18 offensive banners in South Jakarta, two in East Jakarta and four in Central Jakarta.

Ramdansyah said Panwaslu was also following up on reports of equally offensive public sermons or speeches before the election on Sept. 20.